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| Chapter XIII.—In the dead who were raised by Christ we possess the highest proof of the resurrection; and our hearts are shown to be capable of life eternal, because they can now receive the Spirit of God.
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Chapter XIII.—In the dead who were
raised by Christ we possess the highest proof of the resurrection; and our
hearts are shown to be capable of life eternal, because they can now receive
the Spirit of God.
1. Let our opponents—that is, they who speak
against their own salvation—inform us [as to this point]: proof of the resurrection" title="539" id="ix.vii.xiv-p1.2"/>The
deceased daughter of the high priest;4543
| 4543 Mark v. 22. Irenæus confounds the
ruler of the synagogue with the high priest. [Let not those who possess
printed Bibles and concordances and commentaries, and all manner of helps
to memory, blame the Fathers for such mistakes, until they at least equal
them in their marvellous and minute familiarity with the inspired
writers.] | the widow’s dead son, who was being carried
out [to burial] near the gate [of the city];4544
and Lazarus, who had lain four days in the tomb,4545
—in what bodies did they rise again? In those same, no
doubt, in which they had also died. For if it were not in the very same,
then certainly those same individuals who had died did not rise again.
For [the Scripture] says, “The Lord took the hand of the dead man,
and said to him, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And the dead man sat
up, and He commanded that something should be given him to eat; and He
delivered him to his mother.”4546
Again, He
called Lazarus “with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth; and
he that was dead came forth bound with bandages, feet and hands.”
This was symbolical of that man who had been bound in sins. And therefore
the Lord said, “Loose him, and let him depart.” As,
therefore, those who were healed were made whole in those members which
had in times past been afflicted; and the dead rose in the identical
bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, and that life which was
granted by the Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows
that it is He who is Himself able to extend both healing and life to His
handiwork, that His words concerning its [future] resurrection may also
be believed; so also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice “by
the last trumpet,”4547
the dead shall be raised,
as He Himself declares: “The hour shall come, in which all the dead
which are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall
come forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and
those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”4548
2. Vain, therefore, and truly miserable, are those who
do not choose to see what is so manifest and clear, but shun the light of
truth, blinding themselves like the tragic Œdipus. And as those who are
not practised in wrestling, when they contend with others, laying hold
with a determined grasp of some part of [their opponent’s] body,
really fall by means of that which they grasp, yet when they fall,
imagine that they are gaining the victory, because they have obstinately
kept their hold upon that part which they seized at the outset, and
besides falling, become
subjects of ridicule; so is it with
respect to that [favourite] expression of the heretics: “Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;” while taking two
expressions of Paul’s, without having perceived the apostle’s
meaning, or examined critically the force of the terms, but keeping fast
hold of the mere expressions by themselves, they die in consequence of
their influence (περὶ αὐτάς),
overturning as far as in them lies the entire dispensation of God.
3. For thus they will allege that this passage refers
to the flesh strictly so called, and not to fleshly works, as I have
pointed out, so representing the apostle as contradicting himself. For
immediately following, in the same Epistle, he says conclusively,
speaking thus in reference to the flesh: “For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death,
where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory?”4549
Now these words shall be appropriately said at
the time when this mortal and corruptible flesh, which is subject to
death, which also is pressed down by a certain dominion of death, rising
up into life, shall put on incorruption and immortality. For then,
indeed, shall death be truly vanquished, when that flesh which is held
down by it shall go forth from under its dominion. And again, to the
Philippians he says: “But our conversation is in heaven, from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall
transfigure the body of our humiliation conformable to the body of His
glory, even as He is able (ita ut possit) according to the working
of His own power.”4550
What, then, is this
“body of humiliation” which the Lord shall transfigure, [so
as to be] conformed to “the body of His glory?” Plainly it is
this body composed of flesh, which is indeed humbled when it falls into
the earth. Now its transformation [takes place thus], that while it is
mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal and incorruptible, not after
its own proper substance, but after the mighty working of the Lord, who
is able to invest the mortal with immortality, and the corruptible with
incorruption. And therefore he says,4551
| 4551 The original Greek text is preserved here, as above; the
Latin translator inserts, “in secunda ad Corinthios.” Harvey
observes: “The interpretation of the Scriptural reference by the
translator suggests the suspicion that the greater number of such
references have come in from the margin.” | “that
mortality may be swallowed up of life. He who has perfected us for this
very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the
Spirit.”4552
He uses these words most
manifestly in reference to the flesh; for the soul is not mortal, neither
is the spirit. Now, what is mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when
the flesh is dead no longer, but remains living and incorruptible,
hymning the praises of God, who has perfected us for this very thing. In
order, therefore, that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to
the Corinthians, “Glorify God in your body.”4553
Now God is He who gives rise to immortality.
4. That he uses these words with respect to the body of
flesh, and to none other, he declares to the Corinthians manifestly,
indubitably, and free from all ambiguity: “Always bearing about in
our body the dying of Jesus,4554
| 4554 Agreeing with the Syriac version in omitting “the
Lord” before the word “Jesus,” and in reading ἀεὶ as εἰ, which Harvey
considers the true text. | that also the life of Jesus Christ
might be manifested in our body. For if we who live are delivered unto
death for Jesus’ sake, it is that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our mortal flesh.”4555
And
that the Spirit lays hold on the flesh, he says in the same Epistle,
“That ye are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone,
but in the fleshly tables of the heart.”4556
If, therefore, in the present time, fleshly hearts are made
partakers of the Spirit, what is there astonishing if, in the
resurrection, they receive that life which is granted by the Spirit? Of
which resurrection the apostle speaks in the Epistle to the Philippians:
“Having been made conformable to His death, if by any means I might
attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.”4557
In what other mortal flesh, therefore, can
life be understood as being manifested, unless in that substance which is
also put to death on account of that confession which is made of God?
—as he has himself declared, “If, as a man, I have fought
with beasts4558
| 4558 The Syriac
translation seems to take a literal meaning out of this passage:
“If, as one of the men, I have been cast forth to the wild beasts
at Ephesus.” | at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the
dead rise not? For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. Now,
if Christ has not risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain.
In that case, too, we are found false witnesses for God, since we have
testified that He raised up Christ, whom [upon that supposition] He did
not raise up.4559
| 4559 This is in
accordance with the Syriac, which omits the clause, εἴπερ ἄρα νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται.
| For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ
be not risen, your faith is vain, since ye are yet in your sins.
Therefore those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all
men. But now Christ has
risen from the dead, the
first-fruits of those that sleep; for as by man [came] death, by man also
[came] the resurrection of the dead.”4560
5. In all these passages, therefore, as I have already
said, these men must either allege that the apostle expresses opinions
contradicting himself, with respect to that statement, “Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;” or, on the other hand,
they will be forced to make perverse and crooked interpretations of all
the passages, so as to overturn and alter the sense of the words. For
what sensible thing can they say, if they endeavour to interpret
otherwise this which he writes: “For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality;”4561
and, “That the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our
mortal flesh;”4562
and all the other
passages in which the apostle does manifestly and clearly declare the
resurrection and incorruption of the flesh? And thus shall they be
compelled to put a false interpretation upon passages such as these, they
who do not choose to understand one correctly.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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